Posted by Larry Hoover on October 31, 2004, at 18:33:33
In reply to HELP!!! :( :( Freaking out about paint fumes » Larry Hoover, posted by AMD on October 31, 2004, at 17:22:41
> Larry,
>
> I am literally FREAKING OUT about paint fumes I inhaled on Thursday.Yes, you are. If anything hurt you this week, it was the freaking out part. Bear with me.
> I was having such a good week, obsession wise. Then I wake up Thursday to the smell of fumes in my apartment. The door faces the outside. Contractors apparently were painting the door, and the fumes must have seeped inside. So immediately I panicked. I opened the windows and the smell began to dissipate, so I went back to bed for a few hours. I couldn't "smell" the fumes so much once I'd gone to bed -- at least they'd gone away a bit.
Opening the windows was exactly the right thing to do.
> Anyhow, I got up, showered, but as I left for work I plunged immediately into freaked-out mode.
Obsession, right?
> Then at work I had an inability to concentratem feeling yucky with a headache.
From being all wound up?
> I'm not sure if any of this was related to the fumes, but now I'm very, very worried that I got permanent mental impairment -- I am still feeling gross a few days later, and still freaking out.
I really do not think that you were damaged by the fumes. I would correlate the feeling gross with the freaking out.
> The apartment no longer smells of fumes,
Then they are all gone.
> but the smell was so horrid Thursday that I pictured my brain simply melting away.
Perhaps that was not a realistic picture?
> So now I sit here and can't concentrate at ALL. Looking up toxic chemicals on the Internet and so forth.
That's my field of expertise.
> Anyhow, I called the contractors and had them fax me the label of the paint they were using. I don't know what else they used -- probably a paint thinner, etc. I'm positive I have brain damage. :-( :-(I think you have anxiety as your biggest hurdle.
The thinner has to be the same (or nearly identical) as what was in the paint itself, so we've got that covered.
> The paint was oil-based as well, those idiots. If they'd only used latex I wouldn't be so scared.
>
> The toxic ingredients were:
>
> mineral spirits
> soya alkyd polymer
> quartz
> calcium carbonate
> xylene
> ethylbenzene
>
> VOC: 375g/L - 3.13 lb/galThe VOCs are the mineral spirits, the xylene, and the ethylbenzene. When those evaporate out, the soya alkyd polymer binds the pigmented calcium carbonate, producing that nice smooth paint surface. The quartz is there for durability.
The V in VOC is volatile. When they're gone, they're gone. Your exposure on Thursday morning was temporary, removed from the highest exposure (the hallway), and diluted from the open windows. Those painters are exposed to similar every day, for eight hours.
I used to haul tankers of paint materials. Boiling hot alkyd resins, with solvents already in them. I spent a lot of time in paint factories. I physically handled the equipment, cleaned metal equipment (with more solvents). I don't think I damaged my brain. The treatment for fumes is fresh air.
Your liver looks after this stuff, and does a fine job of it. The treatment for acute exposure to these solvents is fresh air, and you got that. What you inhaled as vapour is just as easily exhaled again. It is just as volatile in leaving your blood as it is to get there.
> The paint was "Controls Rust" interior/exterior alkyd gloss enamel. Must be tinted before using.
>
> 590 fl oz, ~5 gallons
>
> I didn't have red eyes (maybe a little) or difficult breathing, but I went to the doctor had had an oxygen level of 97/100, which is a bit low...Actually, sats of 97 is exactly normal.
> Anyhow -- was permanent damage done?
No. And I'm not just saying that. It was a minor exposure to minor toxicants.
> Even assuming the worst case, indoor painting with lots of fumes and no ventilation, nausea from breathing the fumes, a "drunken" feeling, etc., would there be permanent brain damage in that case?
Almost certainly not. I can't guarantee it, but I consider it to be highly unlikely.
> I can't concentrate so I'm assuming this is related to damage to my frontal cortex.I think that is an effect of adrenal hormones due to perceived stress. You're tired from the extra vigilance.
> Does the fetid smell indicate worse brain damage ...
>
> HELP!!!
>
> aNo. If you look at this thread, you'll see gromit had massive chronic exposure. I'm not saying it did nothing adverse, but....he sounds okay to me, cognitively.
I had years of daily exposure in the trucking, and I worked in laboratories for years, with all sorts of solvents, every day. I'm not saying it's a recommended way to spend your day, exposed to fumes, but it's not very toxic at all. It's annoying more than it is toxic.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:381874
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20041005/msgs/409745.html